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One step new age chicken rezala recipe

I made chicken rezala for the first time the day before after work. Very simple. Oil free. Light if you are convalescing. Stupendously tasty. And its fragrance wafted through the house making it feel like the the Nawab of Oudh's house in Calcutta.Here's the recipe.Add 500 g chicken, 100 g whipped curd, paste of two onions, 1 tablespoon of garlic paste (K says it should have been ginger), 1 teaspoon jeera powder, 1 tablespoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, two dry red chillies, 3 bay leaves (tej pata), 5 cardamoms (elaich), half a cup of water to a pressure pan.

Keep an eye on the water. Add less than half a cup if your cooker works with that or if you make it an open pan. This is a very delicate dish and is spoilt if too watery.

And wait, there is a secret ingredient. Add two or three drops of rose water before you begin cooking.

Shut pan. Switch on flame. Three whistles on high flame. Twelve minutes on simmer. Done. Fragrant. Subtle. Light. Delicate. I had it with steamed rice. Could you believe it? That's how tasty it was.

By the way hard core rezala aficionados would swear by ghee (clarified butter) in rezala. You can check Ushnish Ghosh's anthology of rezala recipes for this. My take is that we have not used natural oils enough in Indian cooking. In this case the oils inherent in chicken and onion paste would come to the party. It's a bit like the new age Hindi films which don't have song numbers. Keeps you healthy till you can hit the streets of Calcutta for the real thing.I had posted a rezala recipe before but had not made it myself then. This I can guarantee.

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